Treating depression

Special 90-minute show!

Watch FB Live TODAY, November 11th, 2018,
at 3 PM (PT) with David and Jill!

Join Dr. Jill Levitt and me as we return for our Facebook Live Show today on The Perfectionist’s Script for Self-Defeat! Perfectionism is one of the most common problems we see in clinical practice, and you may struggle with your own perfectionism as well.

Do any of these thoughts sound familiar?

I shouldn’t have screwed up!

I’m a failure.

I should be better than I am.

I’m unlovable.

I’m more screwed up than my patients!

At my age, I should have it more together.

I’m a bad mother (or father, or therapist, etc.)

My presentation was only okay. Darn it! I should have hit it out of the park!

I’m just average. There’s nothing really special about me.

If people found out about how anxious and insecure I am, they’d judge or reject me.

If you can’t do something perfectly, there’s no point in doing it at all.

Your worthwhileness as a human being depends on your productivity, intelligence, and achievements.

All my parents care about is my grades. They don’t really love me for who I am.

Perfectionism can triggers clinical depression and feelings of inferiority and loneliness as well as social anxiety, performance anxiety (e.g. writer’s block), OCD (compulsive checking, cleaning arranging, etc.), eating disorders, and the addiction to work.

Is perfectionism necessarily a bad thing? Maybe it’s a good thing! Where would we be without Thomas Edison, for example? Tune in Sunday and find out!

The show will be chock full of real and inspiring cases as well as helpful treatment techniques. This David and Jill Show will be geared toward therapists and the general public alike, including teenagers and adults.

What does your perfectionism show about you that’s positive and awesome? What are some benefits of your perfectionism?

Would a Cost-Benefit Analysis be useful also. Some overlap with Positive Reframing.

The Semantic Technique

The Experimental Technique

The attorney who was afraid to lose a case in court.

The Pleasure / Perfectionism Balance Sheet

The physician who thought he had to perfect.

Externalization of Voices / Acceptance Paradox

Can use some of the bulleted thoughts listed above that are common among therapists as well as their patients

Feared Fantasy

Dare to be average!

David’s writer’s block when trying to revise Feeling Good

This is one show you WON’T WANT TO MISS!

We hope you can join us live. However, the show will be recorded, as usual, so you can tune in anytime on my Public FB page! Usually the show is an hour, but we’ll do a special, extended, 90-minute show for this cool topic!

Dr. Levitt is Director of Clinical Training at the Feeling Good institute in Mt. View, California. She is a co-director of my weekly psychotherapy training group at Stanford, and is absolutely superb. When we work together, the chemistry can be pure magic (most of the time, but not always!) The photo below was at taken at our recent Sunday workshop on Advanced TEAM-CBT techniques.

a 2-day workshop by David D. Burns, MD

November 29 and 30, 2018–San Francisco, CA (in person only)

and

December 3 and 4, Portland, Oregon (in person and live streaming)

PESI is proud to offer an exciting workshop by David Burns, M.D., a pioneer in the development of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). Achieve rapid and lasting recovery with all your anxious clients, just as Dr. Burns has done in over 35,000 therapy sessions with severely troubled clients. Become skilled at treating every type of anxiety without drugs.

In this unique 2-day certificate course you’ll master more than 20 treatment techniques to help your clients eliminate the symptoms of anxiety quickly – even your most challenging, resistant clients.

How to integrate four powerful treatment models to eliminate symptoms.

How to enhance your client’s engagement in therapy.

How to develop a treatment plan that specifically targets each client’s unique problems and needs.

…and so much more!

David will provide you with guided instruction and share powerful video sessions that capture the actual moment of recovery. You will take away practical strategies to use immediately with any anxious client. Leave this certificate course armed with tools you can use in your very next session!

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from one of America’s most highly acclaimed psychiatrists and teachers!

I have not shared any of Maryam Hamidi’s fabulous photos from our Sunday hikes recently, so decided to post some for you today. We had eight brave hikers, and some really amazing things happened as we were doing personal work and case consultation along the way.

We were pleased that Dr. Mark Noble from the University of Rochester was able to join us once again. Some of you may have heard him on our Podcast #100 on “TEAM-CBT and the Brain.” He is currently working on a book on that title, and has generously volunteered to contribute preview chapter in my upcoming book.

a 2-day workshop by David D. Burns, MD

November 29 and 30, 2018–San Francisco, CA (in person only)

and

December 3 and 4, Portland, Oregon (in person and live streaming)

PESI is proud to offer an exciting workshop by David Burns, M.D., a pioneer in the development of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). Achieve rapid and lasting recovery with all your anxious clients, just as Dr. Burns has done in over 35,000 therapy sessions with severely troubled clients. Become skilled at treating every type of anxiety without drugs.

In this unique 2-day certificate course you’ll master more than 20 treatment techniques to help your clients eliminate the symptoms of anxiety quickly – even your most challenging, resistant clients.

How to integrate four powerful treatment models to eliminate symptoms.

How to enhance your client’s engagement in therapy.

How to develop a treatment plan that specifically targets each client’s unique problems and needs.

…and so much more!

David will provide you with guided instruction and share powerful video sessions that capture the actual moment of recovery. You will take away practical strategies to use immediately with any anxious client. Leave this certificate course armed with tools you can use in your very next session!

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from one of America’s most highly acclaimed psychiatrists and teachers!

Special 90-minute show!

Watch FB Live on Sunday, November 11th, 2018,
at 3 PM (PT) fr with David and Jill!

Join Dr. Jill Levitt and me as we return for our next Facebook Live Show! We will focus on perfectionism, a problem that probably plagues you and your patients as well. In fact, perfectionism is one of the most common problems we see in clinical practice, and most of us struggle with our own perfectionism as well. Perfectionism is a major cause of depression as well as social anxiety, crippling performance anxiety, and more.

Here’s the rough preview of our show.

Do you or your patients reach for the stars and end up grasping air? Perfectionism is one of the most common problems we see in clinical practice, and most mental health professionals at times struggle with their own perfectionism as well.

Do any of these thoughts sound familiar?

I shouldn’t have screwed up!

I’m a failure.

I should be better than I am.

I’m unlovable.

I’m more screwed up than my patients!

At my age, I should have it more together.

I’m a bad mother (or father, or therapist, etc.)

My presentation was only okay. Darn it! I should have hit it out of the park!

I’m just average. There’s nothing really special about me.

If people found out about how anxious and insecure I am, they’d judge or reject me.

If you can’t do something perfectly, there’s no point in doing it at all.

Your worthwhileness as a human being depends on your productivity, intelligence, and achievements.

All my parents care about is my grades. They don’t really love me for who I am.

Perfectionism triggers clinical depression and feelings of inferiority as well as many anxiety disorders, such as social anxiety, performance anxiety (e.g. writer’s block), OCD (compulsive checking, cleaning arranging, etc.), and more.

Perfectionism has also been implicated in eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, although the causal relationships are not entirely clear, plays a role in the addiction to work, and is often associated with loneliness.

But is perfectionism necessarily a bad thing? What’s the difference between neurotic perfectionism and the healthy pursuit of excellence? Tune in Sunday and find out!

The show will be chock full of real and inspiring cases as well as helpful treatment techniques. This David and Jill Show will be geared toward therapists and the general public alike, including teenagers and adults.

Outline of the Show

What is perfectionism? How does neurotic perfectionism differ from the healthy pursuit of excellence?

What does your perfectionism show about you that’s positive and awesome? What are some benefits of your perfectionism?

Would a Cost-Benefit Analysis be useful also. Some overlap with Positive Reframing.

The Semantic Technique

The Experimental Technique

The attorney who was afraid to lose a case in court.

The Pleasure / Perfectionism Balance Sheet

The physician who thought he had to perfect.

Externalization of Voices / Acceptance Paradox

Can use some of the bulleted thoughts listed above that are common among therapists as well as their patients

Feared Fantasy

Dare to be average!

David’s writer’s block when trying to revise Feeling Good

This is one show you WON’T WANT TO MISS!

The David and Jill show is usually on the first Sunday in every month, but this month it will be on the second Sunday (November 11, not November 4). We hope you can join us live. However, the show will be recorded, as usual, so you can tune in anytime on my Public FB page! usually the show is an hour, but we’ll do a special, extended, 90-minute show for this cool topic!

Dr. Levitt is Director of Clinical Training at the Feeling Good institute in Mt. View, California. She is a co-director of my weekly psychotherapy training group at Stanford, and is absolutely superb. When we work together, the chemistry can be pure magic (most of the time, but not always!) The photo below was at taken at our recent Sunday workshop on Advanced TEAM-CBT techniques.

a 2-day workshop by David D. Burns, MD

November 29 and 30, 2018–San Francisco, CA (in person only)

and

December 3 and 4, Portland, Oregon (in person and live streaming)

PESI is proud to offer an exciting workshop by David Burns, M.D., a pioneer in the development of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). Achieve rapid and lasting recovery with all your anxious clients, just as Dr. Burns has done in over 35,000 therapy sessions with severely troubled clients. Become skilled at treating every type of anxiety without drugs.

In this unique 2-day certificate course you’ll master more than 20 treatment techniques to help your clients eliminate the symptoms of anxiety quickly – even your most challenging, resistant clients.

How to integrate four powerful treatment models to eliminate symptoms.

How to enhance your client’s engagement in therapy.

How to develop a treatment plan that specifically targets each client’s unique problems and needs.

…and so much more!

David will provide you with guided instruction and share powerful video sessions that capture the actual moment of recovery. You will take away practical strategies to use immediately with any anxious client. Leave this certificate course armed with tools you can use in your very next session!

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from one of America’s most highly acclaimed psychiatrists and teachers!

Watch FB Live on Sunday, November 11th, 2018,
at 3 PM (PT) for a full hour with David and Jill!

Join Dr. Jill Levitt and me as we return for our next Facebook Live Show! We will focus on perfectionism, a problem that probably plagues you and your patients as well. In fact, perfectionism is one of the most common problems we see in clinical practice, and most of us struggle with our own perfectionism as well. Perfectionism is a major cause of depression as well as many of the anxiety disorders, such as social anxiety and crippling performance anxiety.

Do any of these thoughts sound familiar:

I shouldn’t have screwed up!

I’m a failure.

I should be better than I am.

I’m unlovable.

I’m more screwed up than my patients!

At my age, I should have it more together.

I’m a bad mother (or father, or therapist, etc.)

My presentation was only okay. Darn it! I should have hit it out of the park!

I’m just average. There’s nothing really special about me.

If people found out about how anxious and insecure I am, they’d judge or reject me.

If you can’t do something perfectly, there’s no point in doing it at all.

Your worthwhileness as a human being depends on your productivity, intelligence, and achievements.

All my parents care about is my grades. They don’t really love me for who I am.

What’s the difference between neurotic perfectionism and the healthy pursuit of excellence? What are the cognitive distortions that cause perfectionism? What does your perfectionism show about you that’s positive and awesome? What are some of the benefits of perfectionism? What’s the difference between Perfectionism and Perceived Perfectionism? How can you overcome perfectionism? What does “Dare to be Average” mean? That sounds awful!

Tune in Sunday and find out! The show will be chock full of real and inspiring cases and treatment techniques. This David and Jill Show will be geared toward therapists and the general public alike, including teenagers and adults.

This is one show you WON’T WANT TO MISS!

David’s cover feature on perfectionism in Psychology Today Magazine in 1980 was the most popular article in the history of that magazine. Perfectionism still plagues tens of millions of Americans, and countless more world wide. Is there a solution, or escape, from this trap? Do we even WANT a solution?

The David and Jill show is usually on the first Sunday in every month, but this month it will be on the second Sunday (November 11, not November 4). We hope you can join us live. However, the show will be recorded, as usual, so you can tune in anytime on my Public FB page!

Dr. Levitt is Director of Clinical Training at the Feeling Good institute in Mt. View, California. She is a co-director of my weekly psychotherapy training group at Stanford, and is absolutely superb. When we work together, the chemistry can be pure magic (most of the time, but not always!) The photo below was at taken at our recent Sunday workshop on Advanced TEAM-CBT techniques.

a 2-day workshop by David D. Burns, MD

November 29 and 30, 2018–San Francisco, CA (in person only)

and

December 3 and 4, Portland, Oregon (in person and live streaming)

PESI is proud to offer an exciting workshop by David Burns, M.D., a pioneer in the development of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT). Achieve rapid and lasting recovery with all your anxious clients, just as Dr. Burns has done in over 35,000 therapy sessions with severely troubled clients. Become skilled at treating every type of anxiety without drugs.

In this unique 2-day certificate course you’ll master more than 20 treatment techniques to help your clients eliminate the symptoms of anxiety quickly – even your most challenging, resistant clients.

How to integrate four powerful treatment models to eliminate symptoms.

How to enhance your client’s engagement in therapy.

How to develop a treatment plan that specifically targets each client’s unique problems and needs.

…and so much more!

David will provide you with guided instruction and share powerful video sessions that capture the actual moment of recovery. You will take away practical strategies to use immediately with any anxious client. Leave this certificate course armed with tools you can use in your very next session!

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from one of America’s most highly acclaimed psychiatrists and teachers!

Why do people resist using the Five Secrets of Effective Communication? (a very exciting topic!)

Live therapy: David and Jill treat someone with a relationship problem.

So stay tuned! And please spread the word among your friends and colleagues if you like our show. We are trying hard to expand our audience. We are now seeing more than 50,000 downloads of our Feeling Good Podcasts every month, but would love to grow even larger. Feel free to share them with your friends.

In our next Feeling Good Podcast, we will show you how to use the Recovery Circle to select the most helpful techniques to challenge your own negative thoughts so that you’ll be Feeling Good!

Fabrice and I hope you like our Feeling Good Podcasts, and also hope you can leave some positive comments for us and five star ratings if you like what we’re doing!

Attend a Summer Intensive!

This year, I am offering a July summer intensive in Whistler, Canada, and one in August at the South San Francisco Conference center. The intensives are almost always my most exciting and fun workshops of the year. Hope you can join us at one of these locations.

Sometimes I do podcasts for other pod casters in addition to the weekly Feeling Good Podcasts I do with our beloved Dr. Fabrice Nye. If you click the link below, you’ll discover a podcast I did with Larry Weeks that apparently received some excellent feedback from listeners.

Take a look and a listen. He did a really nice job, and I think you’ll enjoy it!

David

If you are reading this blog on social media, I appreciate it! I would like to invite you to visit my website, http://www.FeelingGood.com, as well. There you will find a wealth of free goodies, including my Feeling Good blogs, my Feeling Good Podcasts with host, Dr. Fabrice Nye, and the Ask Dr. David blogs as well, along with announcements of upcoming workshops, and tons of resources for mental health professionals as well as patients!

Once you link to my blog, you can sign up using the widget at the top of the column to the right of each page. Please forward my blogs to friends as well, especially anyone with an interest in mood problems, psychotherapy, or relationship conflicts.

I just got an awesome email from a psychiatrist who attended my Philadelphia workshop. You might enjoy it!

David

Hi Dr. Burns,

How are you doing Sir. I’m doing well in Michigan.

Just like to gladly inform you that since attending your workshop in Philadelphia in April 2017, learning from your podcasts regularly, reading your work and going through your previously held workshops on DVDs few times, I have been constantly using your inventive TEAM CBT process with my veteran and non-veteran patients over a year and vigorously for the last six months. Now I can say with confidence that there are miracles happening almost every few days and weeks, as my patients are “feeling good and joyful” in their lives again. They are learning tools to heal themselves and prevent relapses.

I also feel proud of myself again that I am doing something meaningfully therapeutic for my patients since I left my ophthalmology practice and Pakistan in 1995.

Thank you for awarding me with a new sense of purpose in my life which is to help my patients feel better about themselves and give them the tools to heal them collaboratively.

Thank you again!

I am teaching my Psychiatry Residents (who rotate with me once a week) TEAM-CBT on an ongoing basis, though most are still heavily influenced by the notion of cure via psychopharmacology–though I was of the same opinion, too, back in my residency days.

It was a real thrill to receive your gracious email. My experience is similar, and I think the more you practice TEAM-CBT the better and better you’ll get. One of the greatest joys of my life is seeing someone recover before my very eyes and get transformed from intense despair and fear to joy. It is, as you say, like a miracle.

We have just started a new Thursday evening class for psychiatric residents at the Stanford Medical School. The residents this year are incredible enthusiastic and fun to teach, and very hungry to learn some good psychotherapy. So I now have two weekly training groups at Stanford. The Tuesday night group has over 30 members, including PsyD students, PhD students, Stanford therapists, and community therapists who can receive unlimited free training and personal work at our Tuesday group.

I also offer Sunday morning hikes for several hours for people in the training groups, followed by a dim sum feast at a local Chinese restaurant. We have great fun on the hikes and do personal work and difficult case consultation. All three events are highlights of my week and my life!

If you come to the bay area, I’d love to have you visit us!

David

If you are reading this blog on social media, I appreciate it! I would like to invite you to visit my website, http://www.FeelingGood.com, as well. There you will find a wealth of free goodies, including my Feeling Good blogs, my Feeling Good Podcasts with host, Dr. Fabrice Nye, and the Ask Dr. David blogs as well, along with announcements of upcoming workshops, and tons of resources for mental health professionals as well as patients!

Once you link to my blog, you can sign up using the widget at the top of the column to the right of each page. Please forward my blogs to friends as well, especially anyone with an interest in mood problems, psychotherapy, or relationship conflicts.

One of my students, Kyle Jones, sent me this cute link to an animated version of my work, which is actually pretty good, I think! Let me know if you like it. And thanks a bunch to the creative and brilliant man who created it. I don’t actually know who he is, and would like to find out so I can say thanks!

David

If you are reading this blog on social media, I appreciate it! I would like to invite you to visit my website, http://www.FeelingGood.com, as well. There you will find a wealth of free goodies, including my Feeling Good blogs, my Feeling Good Podcasts with host, Dr. Fabrice Nye, and the Ask Dr. David blogs as well, along with announcements of upcoming workshops, and tons of resources for mental health professionals as well as patients!

Once you link to my blog, you can sign up using the widget at the top of the column to the right of each page. Please forward my blogs to friends as well, especially anyone with an interest in mood problems, psychotherapy, or relationship conflicts.

“Bibliotherapy” means “reading therapy.” Is there any valid research suggesting that simply reading a self-help book can really help someone with moderate to severe depression? Or is it all just a lot of hype and marketing?

There are actually many published research indicating that my book, Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, has fairly potent antidepressant effects, even without treatment with medications or psychotherapy. That sounds encouraging, but is the research valid? Can reading a book actually cure depression? This may not seem possible, given the sad fact that antidepressant medications as well as psychotherapy are often not effective.

So how could someone recover just by reading a book? No way!

Here’s an email I received a few days ago, and I am sharing it with you with the permission of the author. I have withheld his / her name to protect this person’s identity, but want to thank him/her in advance for kindly writing me and allowing me to share this with all of you!

Hello Dr. David,

I just finished your book Feeling Good. My depression score on the first day was 51, and today after I just finished it, I scored 0.

I just wanted to thank you endlessly!

Best Regards, (name withheld)

In case you aren’t familiar with the scoring of my depression test, the one this reader used ranges from 0 (joyous, with no depression at all) to 100 (extremely severe depression.) His / her initial score of 51 indicate moderate to severe depression.

I am always overjoyed to receive emails like this. Since Feeling Good was published, I have received more than 30,000 emails or letters (in the old days) similar to this one.

If you, or a friend or loved one, or even a patient of yours, is struggling with depression or anxiety, you might suggest they give Feeling Good “bibliotherapy” a try. Many outcome studies indicate that my book is effective for two-thirds of patients with moderate to severe depression within four weeks. A three-year follow-up study of patients given copies of Feeling Good are also extremely encouraging, so give it a try. You or someone you care about might also benefit!

All the best,

David Burns, MD

Here are a few references for those of you who are more scientifically oriented:

If you are reading this blog on social media, I appreciate it! I would like to invite you to visit my website, http://www.FeelingGood.com, as well. There you will find a wealth of free goodies, including my Feeling Good blogs, my Feeling Good Podcasts with host, Dr. Fabrice Nye, and the Ask Dr. David blogs as well, along with announcements of upcoming workshops, and tons of resources for mental health professionals as well as patients!

Once you link to my blog, you can sign up using the widget at the top of the column to the right of each page. Please forward my blogs to friends as well, especially anyone with an interest in mood problems, psychotherapy, or relationship conflicts.